Microsoft Xbox 360 processor details from IBM

Microsoft Xbox 360 processor details from IBM

Less than a month is remaining before the world’s largest software company Microsoft unveils their next generation gaming console in the market. Xbox 360 is scheduled to be launched on the November 22 and it is expected to deliver what no gaming console has delivered till date. The gaming machine is going to feature microprocessor developed by the IBM who have released some information about their chip.

The IBM-built chip features three customized PowerPC computing engines and they can each handle two simultaneous tasks at clock speeds greater than 3 gigahertz. They took less than 24 months to develop such a high performance chip after they signed on a contract with Microsoft. Todd Holmdahl, Microsoft vice president of Xbox hardware spoke about their deal with IBM: “Working with IBM gave us the flexibility to design a processor to give game developers the kind of targeted power they need to make great games.”

The original Xbox currently available in the market used an Intel Corp. 733-megahertz Pentium III microprocessor. However, the company decided to use another processor in the latter updated variants. For Xbox 360 they decided to move to IBM and use their technologies. Interestingly, IBM has also been involved in the development of Cell, the processor that would be powering the Sony Playstation 3, the prime competitor for Xbox 360.

IBM also said that they have also incorporated high-speed connection between the microprocessor and the Xbox’s graphics processor developed by ATI Technologies Inc. this further helps the gaming console to be faster than anything available till date in gaming consoles available in the market.